A conventional skin care device treats user's skin with a suction nozzle, which is placed against the skin so that the tip of the suction nozzle touches and covers the skin being treated. When a suction pump of the skin care device is then operated, the tip of the suction nozzle takes out and removes sebum or other cutaneous impurities from the skin (hereinafter, referred to as “skin impurities”) while massaging the skin. But since the skin care treatment can be performed while the suction nozzle tip is contacting the skin, a gap may be formed between them. For this reason, the contact made between the suction nozzle of the conventional skin care device and the skin tends to be poor, so that skin impurities cannot be removed sufficiently.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-161438 discloses a skin care device which sprays liquid onto the user's skin around the tip of a suction nozzle before and after a sebum suction treatment. Liquid sprayed before the sebum suction treatment helps the tip of the suction nozzle of the skin care device to slide smoothly on the skin, thereby allowing the skin care device easier to maneuver. Further, liquid sprayed after sebum suction treatment helps the irritated skin to be soothed and the skin pores to be closed.
In the skin care device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-161438, a single pump is used as a suction pump and a liquid supply pump. The single pump is provided with both a suction part and an exhaust part so that the single pump draws air into its inner space through a suction port and discharges air to the atmosphere through an exhaust port. To treat the user's skin by taking out and removing skin impurities, the suction nozzle tip is placed against the skin and the pump is operated to draw air from the inner space of the suction part and to discharge the air to the atmosphere through the exhaust part. Thus, the pressure in the suction part is reduced to expel sebum or cutaneous impurities from the skin, thereby cleansing the skin. While this treatment is underway, the tip of the suction nozzle is touching the skin, and a negative pressure is generated inside the suction part so that the exhaust part does not discharge any more air to the atmosphere. Thus, the conventional skin care device, which is configured such that the liquid spraying operation is performed by using the Venturi effect created by the air discharged through the exhaust part, cannot spray liquid onto the skin during the sebum suction treatment. Consequently, the conventional skin care device cannot supply a proper or uniform amount of liquid to the skin during the sebum suction treatment, so that the conventional skin care device cannot evenly or efficiently remove skin impurities.
Further, when a suction pump and a liquid supply pump are separately provided in the housing of a skin care device and are operated simultaneously to solve the above problem, it then becomes necessary to have the suction pump, a drive unit for the suction pump, the liquid supply pump, a drive unit for the liquid supply pump, a liquid storage tank, and a battery as a power source for the device at proper positions in the housing of the skin care device. However, providing the additional components in the housing increases the weight and size of the skin care device. Furthermore, the above added components would disrupt the weight balance of the skin care device, so that maneuvering the skin care device would become more difficult.